New workshop build, with a difference!

[SeanG]

They left the scafolding behind though, that'll come in handy on the workshop build

 

[Mcluma]

Excellent job done

and without breaking any of the glas of your conservatory =D>

is that other roof your's as well, as that looks like a new roof

sorry to hear about your leak.

I had a leak on one of my toilet cisterns inlet valves, the previous owner overtide it so the plastic thread had come off, I replaced it with one with a brass thread, - job done

 

[Cegidfa]

I have to confess......I stole my own chimney, with help from a friend.

Santa can still use the central chimney, but he might have trouble extricating himself through the sealed fire door :wink:

Unfortunately, they will be stealing the scaffolding back soon.
Sean, your tag line has been my mantra for the last 40 years. It has saved a lot of money, and I have learned a hell of a lot in the process.

Does anyone think that I was overcharged for the scaffolding? It cost £150.

Thanks McLuma, we attached a 1m tall by 1800 long bit of ply to the vertical scaff. plank and the floor boarding, both sides. These caught all the bits. Well worth doing, but tricky in the wind.
Yes, the other roof is ours, and was done as part of the extension 13 years ago.....before our time.
The leak turned out to be the pressure regulator for the filter water tap, so I have bypassed it for now, and the company are sending a new unit....gratis, as it is out of guarantee and they want the old unit back so they can find out what went wrong. How about that for service.

If it stops raining, we can resume truss assembly tomorrow.

Regards...Dick.

 

[SeanG]

£150 seems ok to me, and the strap line hasn't saved me as much as it could of - if only I'd built something every time I said it


I've been enjoying the workshop build - its looking very good!

 

[kirkpoore1]

Dick:

I ran across this site about a week ago, and have been reading the workshop threads with particular interest since I added a shop onto the back of my garage just about a year ago. I think we share an interest in getting as much natural light as possible--I've got a clerestory on my shop. Will the skylights in your gambrel roof face toward the south? I don't recall seeing what you're going to use for heat in the shop, but are you going to add a ceiling fan to keep the heat from pooling in the high ceiling?

I'm finding the differences in construction details on your and others' shops intriguing--quite different from what we see around here in the midwest US.

Anyway, good luck and keep up the reports and pictures...

Kirk

 

[Cegidfa]

Thanks Sean, I asked because that was the first scaffolding we have used, so we had no idea if it was a reasonable price.
Interestingly, my son lives in Bristol now and is loving it.

I’m glad that you are enjoying the build, I get a lot of pleasure from the interchange with other ‘shedi knights’. People here are helpful and good fun, a great combination.

Hello Kirk, and welcome to the forum. My friend is an artist, and the first thing that he said, on seeing the CAD drawing was, ‘more light’; that was when I added the roof lights; yes, they are nearly south facing.
The beauty of the Gambrel design is, that due to the angle, direct sun is limited in the work area, although it does allow more heat to pass into the shop via the ’g’ rating of the glass. I am hoping to make them opening to vent the warm air. Also, the circular end windows, with luck, will be either opening, or removable. If I were to fit a fan there it would create a Venturi effect that would both cool and remove the fine airborne dust that escapes the dust extraction. As to heating, I am going to wait and see how the insulation performs, as it will be a bit different to the norm, for the UK workshop. But I will make provision in the wiring for it to be added later.

Can I take it that you have a ‘standard’ pitched roof on the shop. If so does that mean that the clerestory windows are are fitted at the top of the wall, under the roof join? A picture would be very interesting, but you need to have posted about six times before the pictures are not considered as spam and blocked.

Given that I have borrowed the Dutch Colonial design from the US, I am interested in your perceived differences in construction methods, please let me know.

I have just google mapped your city, it looks like a pleasant location, with houses having a reasonable amount of garden, compared with the UK, who have the smallest houses in Europe.
Thanks for the good wishes and rest assured that I will continue reporting back, as I thoroughly enjoy doing it......to my surprise.

Regards ......Dick.

 

[kirkpoore1]

Hello Kirk, and welcome to the forum. My friend is an artist, and the first thing that he said, on seeing the CAD drawing was, ‘more light’; that was when I added the roof lights; yes, they are nearly south facing.
The beauty of the Gambrel design is, that due to the angle, direct sun is limited in the work area, although it does allow more heat to pass into the shop via the ’g’ rating of the glass. I am hoping to make them opening to vent the warm air. Also, the circular end windows, with luck, will be either opening, or removable. If I were to fit a fan there it would create a Venturi effect that would both cool and remove the fine airborne dust that escapes the dust extraction. As to heating, I am going to wait and see how the insulation performs, as it will be a bit different to the norm, for the UK workshop. But I will make provision in the wiring for it to be added later.

Can I take it that you have a ‘standard’ pitched roof on the shop. If so does that mean that the clerestory windows are are fitted at the top of the wall, under the roof join? A picture would be very interesting, but you need to have posted about six times before the pictures are not considered as spam and blocked.

...
Regards ......Dick.

Thanks for the quick response, Dick. I saw your issues with the post count, so I'll send a few posts before putting up any pictures.

My clerestory runs the length of the shop, so divides the roof into two levels separated by a 4' high vertical wall. Each side has 5 windows, and two on each side open to allow cross ventilation. The ceiling in the clerestory is 16' above the floor, so I have two ceiling fans to both cool things down in the summer and keep the heat from pooling high up in the winter. I don't know what your winter temps are like, which is why I asked about heating. Here, our average winter daily temps are about -6C for a low to +4C for a high, and we can dip as low as -20C for several days at a time. So heating is essential if I'm going to get anything done in the winter.

I think your end fan idea is a good one. If you're going with circular windows on each end, I'd put a fan in one and just have the other open (if possible). Or just put a fan under the roof peak on one end, and leave the windows alone.

More later, after I've done some real work...

Kirk

 

[kirkpoore1]

Dick:

Here's a couple of pictures of the clerestory in my shop:

And inside:

I'm told this is also called a monitor roof, but there's some overlap in the definitions so I suppose it could be either. As you can see, I could have (and probably should have) put an exhaust fan up near the peak at one end. But the opening windows worked well over the summer. (Ignore the oddball window sizes. There was an order screwup, and the contractor later replaced the small ones.)

Kirk

 

[Cegidfa]

Hello Kirk, my, you have been busy to get to a position where you can post pictures. I bet that the grass doesn’t grow under your feet :smile:

I think that you will, in one fell swoop, have put a lot of noses out of joint on this site :wink:

Sixteen feet tall, you lucky son of a gun. We are only allowed to build to thirteen feet, unless we get Planning Permission and then would have to build to Building Regs.
This would then require a structural engineers input which would entail deeper footings and bigger timbers; thus adding probably another $3000 approx. to the cost.
And to add insult to injury you appear to have air conditioning........pah :wink: :wink:

Seriously, that’s not a workshop, it would be a young house over here; and a very nice design to boot. Is it all brick with cladding? Do give us the gory construction details?

Just think, if I could have built to 16 ft, the roof would have been much better proportioned and had the ability to have a second floor of sorts.......not that I’m jealous :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Regards...Dick.

 

[kirkpoore1]

Well, Dick, before folks get jealous, I'm pretty sure I spent a lot more money than most folks on this site, and I had a contractor build most of it. The building itself (foundation, framing, siding (except the brick), roof, and windows) cost $27,000. Insulation, brick & related materials, electrical, drywall, paint, heat pump, and other miscellaneous stuff was another $10000. The contractor had software to do all the engineering (though he almost had to get a structural engineer to sign off on some stuff, which would have been another $1k). I did do the brick, drywall, and paint, and had an electrician do all the wiring.

Building permits and regulations are handled locally here, and in my area are fairly relaxed. I did have building and electrical permits, which cost about $200. My brother-in-law in California says permits, soil testing, and various other similar items there would have cost $3000-$5000.

The only brick is the surface you see on the one wall. Everything else is 2x4 framing. One of the interesting differences between what I see in shops on this site and what I'm used to is the foundation. Here's my foundation and slab just after the pour last year:

Note that the footings and stub walls (I think that's the terminology), and slab were poured as a unit (with some expansion joint between the slab and foundation). In your case, you've got footings, then concrete block, then brick on top of that, then your framing. I'm no expert, but I've never seen brick (as opposed to concrete block) used structurally like that on new construction. Brick is all decorative here now. I'm not sure exactly why that is, but it's likely to do with both earthquake regulations and the cost of labor. I'm originally from Los Angeles, and I can tell you that in a big earthquake brick turns into a pile of pink dust. And concrete is way faster to pour than laying brick.

Here's a framing shot, from about the stage your shop is at now:

Oh, and A/C is a necessity here. We had 8 or 10 days at or over 100F (38C) this summer, and many more over 90F with high humidity.

Kirk

 

[Cegidfa]

Hi Kirk,

Can I just say ‘ouch’ that’s a lot of, as we say over here, dosh. I am hoping that mine will cost no more than $8000, but, the only contractors will be us, so that makes a big difference. And neither can I complain about the standard of work :smile:

We managed to construct one more truss today before it poured down - yet again.
The only problem with building a workshop is that ......you need a workshop to construct it in :wink:
Once we have made more parts, and, if it isn’t windy, we will throw a tarp over the frame and get as many trusses put together as we can.

Thanks for posting the pics, we share one thing in common, the distinct lack of noggings - I think you call it blocking, to stiffen the studs. On Dibs-h build, I made a ref. to some research on the subject that found that they were not really contributing much, but our ‘head in the sand’, ‘CYA’ Building Inspectors still demand them...ho hum.

We do use your method of doing footings/ slab over here, and if I build the summer house, I will use that method, as it is all over in one pour. In the UK both brick and blocks are used for houses. The ‘typical’ Barratt house would use all brick above the footings. The lack of earthquakes makes a difference to the construction techniques. I used the red engineering bricks (waterproof and stronger) because a few rows will be seen, and blocks aren’t pretty.

90 - 100F and high humidity.......I humbly retract my joshing, perhaps you should refit the shop as a Turkish bath :wink:

Regards...Dick.

PS. Barratt are a volume house builder of the kind that Pete Seeger sang about many years ago. ‘Little boxes on the hillside, all made out of tikky tacky and all look just the same.’
The man is amazing, in his 90s and still performing, I should be so lucky....ciao.

 

[kirkpoore1]

Hi Kirk,
.
We managed to construct one more truss today before it poured down - yet again.
The only problem with building a workshop is that ......you need a workshop to construct it in :wink:
Once we have made more parts, and, if it isn’t windy, we will throw a tarp over the frame and get as many trusses put together as we can.

Well, Dick, a step a day will get you there--eventually. When I was a kid my father built our house. He built the garage first, then we moved in--my sisters and I in the garage and my parents in a trailer along side. We lived in the garage for a year and a half until the house was done enough to move in. And another year in the house with bare floors until the trim and carpeting were done.

Thanks for posting the pics, we share one thing in common, the distinct lack of noggings - I think you call it blocking, to stiffen the studs. On Dibs-h build, I made a ref. to some research on the subject that found that they were not really contributing much, but our ‘head in the sand’, ‘CYA’ Building Inspectors still demand them...ho hum.

Ah, yes. When building that house (early 70's), my dad called them fireblocks and they were required, one per stud opening. The idea was to slow down fire if it started inside the walls. By the late 80's when he built his next house, they weren't required anymore. I saw Dibs' effort, and was wondering what it was for. Why would an interior stud wall, fronting a block wall, need any stiffening?

... The ‘typical’ Barratt house would use all brick above the footings. The lack of earthquakes makes a difference to the construction techniques....

I'm surprised. I'd think a cheap house would use framing, because the labor is less---it's kinda hard to use a nail gun on brick. But maybe your construction lumber is a lot more expensive.

...
90 - 100F and high humidity.......I humbly retract my joshing, perhaps you should refit the shop as a Turkish bath :wink:

Regards...Dick.

PS. Barratt are a volume house builder of the kind that Pete Seeger sang about many years ago. ‘Little boxes on the hillside, all made out of tikky tacky and all look just the same.’
The man is amazing, in his 90s and still performing, I should be so lucky....ciao.

Ol' Pete's pretty tough, alright. I didn't know he was still performing, though.

Have you got all your electrical planned out? That's one area where my wife demanded a professional--she didn't want me burning the house down.

Kirk

 

[Dibs-h]

I saw Dibs' effort, and was wondering what it was for. Why would an interior stud wall, fronting a block wall, need any stiffening?
Kirk

Kirk

My walls, whilst interior are actually load bearing - hence the requirement to stiffen them. Although they've been built sort of out of sequence, when the structure was designed, the calculations were done on the basis the internal walls were load bearing.

Cheers

Dibs

 

[Cegidfa]

Hi Kirk,
Yes the electrics are planned....ish. The problem is that the workbench that I already have (an old teak lab bench) is taller than the windows. This came about because we have two oak triple glazed units going begging, so the workshop was designed around them.
The problem is how to have available sockets for occasional bench use. Fixed appliances are ok. The only choice is a double on the right hand side of the bench, which is adjacent to the doors, or angled lab' style sockets at the back of the bench that themselves, plug in to the adjacent wall socket.
As this is my first workshop I have no idea how I will use it, so the system will evolve once the build is finished. The intention is to use surface mounted conduit, so it isn't a problem.

Regards...Dick.

 

[wobblycogs]

I wouldn't be inclined to fit sockets into the top of a work bench as I think they will most likely get in the way more than they help. A couple of sockets on the side or front might be good though.

As for plugging those sockets in when needed I'd fit a 16A round connector rather than a regular plug. It's likely to get a lot of insertions / removals and the sockets will be providing a fair bit of power so a more industrial connection is in order I feel.

Hope that makes sense

 

[Cegidfa]

Hi folks,
At last it’s time for an update, making the trusses is a time consuming job, but we now have four erected without mishap. As you will see from the first picture, the hoisting method is high tech. First we fit temporary stop blocks to stop the feet sliding, then we lift the truss into a horizontal position and block it with the steps. Diane takes the weight on the rope and I use a ladder to push the truss to an upright position. We have also made clamp on stops that fit to the upper chord that hold the truss at the correct position. The rope is tied off and a temporary brace fitted. Before fixing the feet we found it expedient to clamp the feet to the stop blocks, as one moved a bit out of position.

Muggins fixing the last truss.

The job was a lot easier than we expected, however, fixing the roof boards might not be, as each one weighs 44kg. Not a lot of fun in a high wind :shock:
Back to the dubious joy of truss assembly tomorrow, weather permitting.

Regards...Dick.

 

[xy mosian]

What a well thought out, and equally well executed solution.
Now for the heavy sheeting. How about a ramp of sand?

xy

 

[jimmy rivers]

Hope the weather's kind Dick as I'm really enjoying following this build The Roof looks great!

Jim

 

[Cegidfa]

Hi Wobblycogs,
Thanks for the concern. The bench mounted sockets would be my least favourite method I have to say. Probably, the wall mounted double socket by the doors will be enough, and metalclad would be sensible in a workshop, but in all the pics that I have seen, people use white plastic, which I think is asking for trouble.

Regards...Dick.

 

[kirkpoore1]

Dick, those trusses look really nice. Four down, what, another dozen to go? I hope they're getting easier with practice. Maybe you'll get a break on the weather soon, too.

I like the idea of you re-using the windows. Not only is it saving you money, but it's a shame to see something usable like that just thrown away.

For power on your bench, I agree that you don't want anything on top. Too much chance of damage, and you're sure to get sawdust down inside. You could try the local equivalent of this:
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/28-9940&green=16255373951

Mount it under your bench top, or maybe vertically on a leg, and you should have as many outlets as you need. I'm pretty sure you'll find that two won't be enough--a couple of routers, a work light, maybe a palm sander, and you'll be hunting all over for someplace to plug in and running extension cords across the floor.

My shop also has surface mounted conduit for the wiring. It works great so far. Make sure you mount the outlets up high (mine are 5' off the floor) so you can get to them after you've got machines in and stuff piled up against the walls. By the way, I was reading up on UK electrical wiring just so I could understand the lingo. It's...a whole different country, let's just leave it at that.

Kirk